One of the challenges in our modern philosophy lies in the difficulty of acknowledging right and wrong, good and bad. We've blurred the lines so much it's almost impossible to clarify this in any absolute way. An artist puts a glass of water on a shelf and calls it an oak tree, and defends that it's an oak tree because he says it is. And there's no argument to be used against his declaration because that would be intolerant, politically incorrect. Hate speech even in extreme cases. The pendulum has swung so far in this liberal direction that you have 50 something gender choices when signing up for a new Facebook account.
Now I'm certainly not advocating the cleaning out of the society of anyone who doesn't agree with the traditional view of things, but I also can't really see my way to endorsing any opinion whatsoever as the new normal.
Some will certainly say I'm a dinosaur stuck in the 1950s for expressing that. And that, I suggest, is exactly the problem.
Dare we try to approach this in our program today? Of course we do.
The Censorship of Natural today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this program.
Showing posts with label society and culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label society and culture. Show all posts
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Thursday, January 23, 2020
The Chaos of Evil
One of the things that's happened to me over the 18 plus years I've been in Brazil working with the science of Analytical Trilogy elaborated by Brazilian psychoanalyst and social scientist, Norberto Keppe, has been a gradual opening of the door to my spirituality. I still consider myself pretty "feet on the floor", which I guess is a nice way of saying materialistic, but there is a flicker of the flame of spiritual awareness that I can feel at times.
And that crack in the opening door has allowed some light of theology to enter my reluctant head, to the point where I now consider the catastrophic disaster awaiting us if we don't make radical changes to be emblematic of a spiritual battle on the planet - not a political or economic or even religious one. We are, in my evolving view, engaged in a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil, and as I understand it, this is taking place at our earthly level fueled by thoughts and orientations from a transcendental level.
I hope we can bring some clarity to that today.
The Chaos of Evil, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Monday, August 07, 2017
Energy of Virtue
Welcome to Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, I'm Richard Lloyd Jones. A couple of thousand years ago, a consideration of virtue was part of everyday, common discourse. The Greeks gave considerable attention to virtue, culminating in Aristotle's influential writings on moral and intellectual virtues. Before him, Confucius proposed personal virtue as the way to a good life. The Bible has hundreds of passages about the importance of virtue.
Today, public discourse is muted, and people lament the loss of the byproducts of virtue, like falling self-discipline and rising selfishness.
Not to mention the rampant corruption at all levels of modern society that makes us fear that virtue is, in fact, long gone. As a small indicator of this, a graph of the frequency of words occurring in books over time shows a rapid rise of the word "technology" in the past 40 years against a two-century slide in virtue.
In Norberto Keppe's Integral Psychoanalysis, though, virtue is essential for a healthy human being and society. So we'd like to go against the grain!
The Energy of Virtue, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Today, public discourse is muted, and people lament the loss of the byproducts of virtue, like falling self-discipline and rising selfishness.
Not to mention the rampant corruption at all levels of modern society that makes us fear that virtue is, in fact, long gone. As a small indicator of this, a graph of the frequency of words occurring in books over time shows a rapid rise of the word "technology" in the past 40 years against a two-century slide in virtue.
In Norberto Keppe's Integral Psychoanalysis, though, virtue is essential for a healthy human being and society. So we'd like to go against the grain!
The Energy of Virtue, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Friday, September 05, 2014
The Limitations of Selfishness
We are clearly living in a time of veneration of the individual in western society. In North America, it's part of our mythology. The strong, independent, self-sufficient person is admired, and you see this reinforced in every area. Paul Simon sang about being a rock, an island against all the rest. The Marlboro Man squints against the sun, confident in his capacity to tame that stallion and build that barn single-handed. Rambo wins the Vietnam War all on his own.
Anything that deep in our psyche commands there unchallenged. There's no option to consider since all other options get dismissed even before we really entertain them. We might flirt with alternatives like socialism and collectivism, but only when we're young and impressed by challenging the status quo.
Individualism - one man, one vote - the democracy of individual rights, obviously has its place as a worldview to govern our lives. But it can stimulate neurosis and even backwardness if not analyzed.
The Limitation of Selfishness, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Anything that deep in our psyche commands there unchallenged. There's no option to consider since all other options get dismissed even before we really entertain them. We might flirt with alternatives like socialism and collectivism, but only when we're young and impressed by challenging the status quo.
Individualism - one man, one vote - the democracy of individual rights, obviously has its place as a worldview to govern our lives. But it can stimulate neurosis and even backwardness if not analyzed.
The Limitation of Selfishness, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Bringing Theology and Philosophy Together with Science
I’m Richard Lloyd Jones, and this is TWSEH.
Oil and water. Black cats and white sweaters. Neckties and bowls of soup. Some things just aren’t made to go together. Like being given plastic cutlery at a Brazilian barbecue restaurant, they’re all a bit difficult to reconcile. Some more profound examples could include faith and doubt, humility and self-confidence. And what about God and science?
Today on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head, Bringing Together Theology and Science.
This is a prickly subject I’m embarking on here, I’m aware of that. But I feel I would be doing a dis-service if I didn’t address the subject. I say this because of the fundamental questions that can only be addressed if we wade into these controversial waters.
Questions like, what is the origin of life and the universe? What is the purpose of life anyway? And more existential even … why am I here? We can’t begin to tackle these questions without a consideration of today’s topic.
These questions don’t occupy our conversations much these days, if they ever did. The Facebook posts we read seldom broach the existential beyond the collective questioning we embark on after a tragedy occurs or a famous person dies. I was recently visiting my aging parents in Canada and their diminished quality of life has caused no small reflection on my own life and purpose. So there are times when we venture into the reverie that generates this discussion. Although it’s rare. Especially in recent years it appears. We’re not much for the deeper considerations in our materialistic and consumerist society of today, and I don’t think this has been positive. “What’s it all about, Alfie?” seems a faintly anachronistic and old-fashioned question today, doesn’t it?
Or is it that we’re just embarrassed to admit that we ponder those questions, admittedly late at night when no one’s watching? There’s precious little reflection of life’s mysteries in our modern art. The poets and song writers mostly seem intent on considering love only from the “how am I going to live without him or her?” position.
In that light, I just finished reading Leonard Cohen’s biography, and was touched by the deep yearning he has had over his long career to explore the profound and the profane, so I know it’s not completely uncool to pose the deeper questions.
Well, in fact, who cares if it’s uncool to be involved in understanding the human situation. I’m not sure when displaying profundity became unmodern, but I’m all for returning to a time when the artists considered they were conversing with the beyond and a human being wanted to consider his short life as fitting within some larger purpose and design.
In large part, I think what’s going on here is a result of the splitting of science from theology and philosophy over the past 500 years or so – culminating in our 20th Century position that there’s no way to marry the three. Science has become a strictly materialistic pursuit perfectly represented in Einstein’s famous formula – the most famous of the 20th Century – that E=mc2. In other words, no matter, no energy, making Einstein’s theory arguably one of the most materialistic in the history of science. I’m sure that wasn’t his intention, of course, but it’s hard to escape the stark materialism of his proposal.
It’s also difficult to distill a coherent spiritual philosophy from the Quantum Physics camp. Parallel realities. Alternate universes. Unlimited realities awaiting your choice to come into being. How to make sense of that in any practical way? I watched What the Bleep do we Know a couple of times and, I must confess, couldn’t make head or tails of it. It seems sexy to consider that universe a series of possibilities awaiting my choice before unfolding reality, but I somehow can’t quite conclude that reality actually bends to my will despite my wishing it so.
The Architect’s speech from Matrix Reloaded is a classic example of how confused we’ve become by this separation of science and theology. Critics call it “profound” but “confusing”. And it is that. Listen:
“The first matrix was perfect … flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure.”
What does that mean? And since when did confusing become profound? No, we need a better starting point than this. A starting place that can be found in the work of Norberto Keppe. His Analytical Trilogy is the synthesis of science, philosophy and theology that has been missing. Keppe considers philosophy to be the mother of science and theology the grandmother, and it’s very illuminating to look at reality through Analytical Trilogy eyes.
Let’s do that today … try to bring the incredible wisdom from 5000 years of theological and philosophical study back into science. Or at least, start the process of understanding that. Keppe’s books will fill out the knowledge. If you’re interested in more, write me at rich@richjonesvoice.com.
Bringing Together Theology and Science, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Oil and water. Black cats and white sweaters. Neckties and bowls of soup. Some things just aren’t made to go together. Like being given plastic cutlery at a Brazilian barbecue restaurant, they’re all a bit difficult to reconcile. Some more profound examples could include faith and doubt, humility and self-confidence. And what about God and science?
Today on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head, Bringing Together Theology and Science.
This is a prickly subject I’m embarking on here, I’m aware of that. But I feel I would be doing a dis-service if I didn’t address the subject. I say this because of the fundamental questions that can only be addressed if we wade into these controversial waters.
Questions like, what is the origin of life and the universe? What is the purpose of life anyway? And more existential even … why am I here? We can’t begin to tackle these questions without a consideration of today’s topic.
These questions don’t occupy our conversations much these days, if they ever did. The Facebook posts we read seldom broach the existential beyond the collective questioning we embark on after a tragedy occurs or a famous person dies. I was recently visiting my aging parents in Canada and their diminished quality of life has caused no small reflection on my own life and purpose. So there are times when we venture into the reverie that generates this discussion. Although it’s rare. Especially in recent years it appears. We’re not much for the deeper considerations in our materialistic and consumerist society of today, and I don’t think this has been positive. “What’s it all about, Alfie?” seems a faintly anachronistic and old-fashioned question today, doesn’t it?
Or is it that we’re just embarrassed to admit that we ponder those questions, admittedly late at night when no one’s watching? There’s precious little reflection of life’s mysteries in our modern art. The poets and song writers mostly seem intent on considering love only from the “how am I going to live without him or her?” position.
In that light, I just finished reading Leonard Cohen’s biography, and was touched by the deep yearning he has had over his long career to explore the profound and the profane, so I know it’s not completely uncool to pose the deeper questions.
Well, in fact, who cares if it’s uncool to be involved in understanding the human situation. I’m not sure when displaying profundity became unmodern, but I’m all for returning to a time when the artists considered they were conversing with the beyond and a human being wanted to consider his short life as fitting within some larger purpose and design.
In large part, I think what’s going on here is a result of the splitting of science from theology and philosophy over the past 500 years or so – culminating in our 20th Century position that there’s no way to marry the three. Science has become a strictly materialistic pursuit perfectly represented in Einstein’s famous formula – the most famous of the 20th Century – that E=mc2. In other words, no matter, no energy, making Einstein’s theory arguably one of the most materialistic in the history of science. I’m sure that wasn’t his intention, of course, but it’s hard to escape the stark materialism of his proposal.
It’s also difficult to distill a coherent spiritual philosophy from the Quantum Physics camp. Parallel realities. Alternate universes. Unlimited realities awaiting your choice to come into being. How to make sense of that in any practical way? I watched What the Bleep do we Know a couple of times and, I must confess, couldn’t make head or tails of it. It seems sexy to consider that universe a series of possibilities awaiting my choice before unfolding reality, but I somehow can’t quite conclude that reality actually bends to my will despite my wishing it so.
The Architect’s speech from Matrix Reloaded is a classic example of how confused we’ve become by this separation of science and theology. Critics call it “profound” but “confusing”. And it is that. Listen:
“The first matrix was perfect … flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure.”
What does that mean? And since when did confusing become profound? No, we need a better starting point than this. A starting place that can be found in the work of Norberto Keppe. His Analytical Trilogy is the synthesis of science, philosophy and theology that has been missing. Keppe considers philosophy to be the mother of science and theology the grandmother, and it’s very illuminating to look at reality through Analytical Trilogy eyes.
Let’s do that today … try to bring the incredible wisdom from 5000 years of theological and philosophical study back into science. Or at least, start the process of understanding that. Keppe’s books will fill out the knowledge. If you’re interested in more, write me at rich@richjonesvoice.com.
Bringing Together Theology and Science, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Recovering True Humanity
I'm Richard Lloyd Jones, and this is Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
With so much tension and confusion in modern day life, it seems appropriate to do our show, which deals so directly with the core issues of human existence. In fact, perhaps any of us who don't feel deeply disturbed by our situation are dangerously alienated or excessively cold-hearted. That would appear to be the case with the power structure that governs our affairs today.
Norberto Keppe, whose science of Analytical Trilogy underpins our show, considers that the way power is being used today to be the biggest problem facing us. We live in a world dominated by the pathology of power, which is even more responsible for our modern crises than our individual problems. Still, we condone this abuse by not learning more about it and by following it. Ignorance is no excuse, and we must become smarter about psycho-socio pathology, the purpose of our show today.
Recovering True Humanity today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
With so much tension and confusion in modern day life, it seems appropriate to do our show, which deals so directly with the core issues of human existence. In fact, perhaps any of us who don't feel deeply disturbed by our situation are dangerously alienated or excessively cold-hearted. That would appear to be the case with the power structure that governs our affairs today.
Norberto Keppe, whose science of Analytical Trilogy underpins our show, considers that the way power is being used today to be the biggest problem facing us. We live in a world dominated by the pathology of power, which is even more responsible for our modern crises than our individual problems. Still, we condone this abuse by not learning more about it and by following it. Ignorance is no excuse, and we must become smarter about psycho-socio pathology, the purpose of our show today.
Recovering True Humanity today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Losing Our Religion
A reading of modern scientific and philosophical thought can be unnverving. Human beings, goes this materialistic scientific view, are the product of causes that are accidental and purposeless. All individual achievements are destined to extinction in the vast entropy of a universe relentlessly bound for ruin.
We are nothing but gigantic lumbering robots built by our genes as survival machines, asserts Richard Dawkins, a leading proponent of this modernist stance.
And I'm not exaggerating the bleakness. Reading Dawkins or geneticist Steve Jones (no relation) or philosopher Bertrand Russell is a depressing journey that reduces Man's greatest imaginings to the garbage heap of cold, unforgiving material forces that care not a whit for such romantic notions as hopes and ideals.
It's all so very modern. No good and evil, no confusing purpose, just relentless survival over incomprehensible time periods.
Maybe there's something missing in it.
Losing our Religion, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
We are nothing but gigantic lumbering robots built by our genes as survival machines, asserts Richard Dawkins, a leading proponent of this modernist stance.
And I'm not exaggerating the bleakness. Reading Dawkins or geneticist Steve Jones (no relation) or philosopher Bertrand Russell is a depressing journey that reduces Man's greatest imaginings to the garbage heap of cold, unforgiving material forces that care not a whit for such romantic notions as hopes and ideals.
It's all so very modern. No good and evil, no confusing purpose, just relentless survival over incomprehensible time periods.
Maybe there's something missing in it.
Losing our Religion, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, April 02, 2012
Correcting Metaphysics and Society
I remember the day it fully dawned on me that the path society was on was a dead end. I was on the train from Rhinebeck, NY to Toronto - a beautiful but tedious journey with only vestiges of the former romance of train travel to keep me company. I was settled in with snacks and bottled water and ample reading material to fill the long 10 hours or so ahead of me.
My book of choice at that time was Norberto Keppe's Liberation of the People: The Pathology of Power, and I felt myself changing as I read.
Or maybe it wasn't a change as much as a recognition. T.S. Eliot spoke about how at the end of all our exploring we would arrive at where we started and know the place for the first time - and that perhaps comes closer to how I felt. It was like a recognition in Keppe's writing of something I also knew to be true but had forgotten.
Keppe's great book does that - reawakens our idealism and gives us a glimpse of the new society that's possible. And all this can happen because Keppe helps disinvert us and get us back on track.
Correcting Metaphysics and Society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
My book of choice at that time was Norberto Keppe's Liberation of the People: The Pathology of Power, and I felt myself changing as I read.
Or maybe it wasn't a change as much as a recognition. T.S. Eliot spoke about how at the end of all our exploring we would arrive at where we started and know the place for the first time - and that perhaps comes closer to how I felt. It was like a recognition in Keppe's writing of something I also knew to be true but had forgotten.
Keppe's great book does that - reawakens our idealism and gives us a glimpse of the new society that's possible. And all this can happen because Keppe helps disinvert us and get us back on track.
Correcting Metaphysics and Society, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Friday, March 09, 2012
Inversion - The Missing Link in Human Consciousness
We are indeed living in potentially transformative times. And I only say "potentially" because it remains to be seen if humankind will do what it takes to reverse the downward cycle we have been in for millennia.
I know this sounds like heresy to those conditioned to hearing about the progress of modern society, but I am, of course, talking about a decay at a level much more profound than technological. Because, really, what benefit is it to us to be able to Twitter what we had for breakfast if the air is poisonous and the social injustice continues unabated?
All our vaunted progress is moving us further and further away from a better society, not closer, and this is happening because of an inverted worldview inside the mass of humanity. This Inversion is, of course, not perceived by us. And educating human beings of this provides the reason for our show, and underscores the importance of Norberto Keppe's science of Analytical Trilogy, which provides the base for what we do on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Inversion - The Missing Link in Human Consciousness, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
I know this sounds like heresy to those conditioned to hearing about the progress of modern society, but I am, of course, talking about a decay at a level much more profound than technological. Because, really, what benefit is it to us to be able to Twitter what we had for breakfast if the air is poisonous and the social injustice continues unabated?
All our vaunted progress is moving us further and further away from a better society, not closer, and this is happening because of an inverted worldview inside the mass of humanity. This Inversion is, of course, not perceived by us. And educating human beings of this provides the reason for our show, and underscores the importance of Norberto Keppe's science of Analytical Trilogy, which provides the base for what we do on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Inversion - The Missing Link in Human Consciousness, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People - Highlight Version
Our latest Thinking with Somebody Else's Head program explores a crucial question: in order for society to improve, does the individual need to change first, or does the political structure - the pathology of power - need to shift?
Norberto Keppe's science of psycho-socio pathology helps us understand this crucial question, and brings a deep wisdom to the consideration that few people are discussing.
We hope to contribute to changing that.
Here's an excerpt from our latest Thinking with Somebody Else's Head program, The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People. If you like it and want more, the full program's available at www.healingthroughconsciousness.com, through iTunes, or here.
Click here to listen to the highlights version of The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People.
Norberto Keppe's science of psycho-socio pathology helps us understand this crucial question, and brings a deep wisdom to the consideration that few people are discussing.
We hope to contribute to changing that.
Here's an excerpt from our latest Thinking with Somebody Else's Head program, The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People. If you like it and want more, the full program's available at www.healingthroughconsciousness.com, through iTunes, or here.
Click here to listen to the highlights version of The Wrong Vibration Between Power and People.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Removing the Rose-Colored Glasses - program excerpt
This week on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, we'll take off the rose-colored glasses to look at what we need to do to create the just society everybody in the 99% says they want. A small hint: there'll be some internal soul-searching required. But along the way, a very optimistic view of business and working for ourselves. It's powerful stuff when combined with the science of psycho-socio pathology elaborated at Norberto Keppe's International Society of Analytical Trilogy.
Listen to a program excerpt here.
Listen to a program excerpt here.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Consciousness for a Conscious Planet
A conscious planet ... wow, is that ever needed right now. I know many people are feeling that something's just not right in our world today, but don't know how to characterize this general malaise they feel any more than that. Our program is trying to address that ... indeed, Dr. Norberto Keppe's science of Analytical Trilogy has been shedding the light on what's gone so wrong for over 50 years now. Either we're slow learners, or we've really been avoiding the consciousness he brings.
So, no more avoiding. Understanding how humanity painted itself so tightly into this corner is here in our program today, along with some hope for a way out. Or at the very least, how to cope with the difficulties and offer a hand out to those in more serious need.
First in our program today, Susan Berkley with some thoughts on modern Judaism here shortly after the Jewish New Year, along with some thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. Then Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco with her perspectives from a lifetime career as a psychoanalyst on what's gone so wrong, and how to fix it.
Consciousness for a Conscious Planet, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
So, no more avoiding. Understanding how humanity painted itself so tightly into this corner is here in our program today, along with some hope for a way out. Or at the very least, how to cope with the difficulties and offer a hand out to those in more serious need.
First in our program today, Susan Berkley with some thoughts on modern Judaism here shortly after the Jewish New Year, along with some thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. Then Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco with her perspectives from a lifetime career as a psychoanalyst on what's gone so wrong, and how to fix it.
Consciousness for a Conscious Planet, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Evil Man Does: Going Behind the Curtains of Power
It is extremely important to perceive that the established powers have been organized to control the will of the people, paralyzing their capacity to act. In fact, there is ample evidence that the socio-economic power in charge today holds back the development of humankind.
But most critics (and there are many, including many excellent ones) can’t connect the dots to give us a complete analysis of it because they’re lacking the understanding of the science of psycho-socio pathology. Which is exactly what we bring every week on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head.
In spite of being attacked relentlessly by the powerful because the powerful know that if his work gets into the world, they lose their hold on power, Norberto Keppe has been resolute in his condemnation of the pathology of power. We’ll go deeply behind the curtains of power to expose all that on today’s show.
Join the conversation at joneshealing@gmail.com
Click here to listen to this episode.
But most critics (and there are many, including many excellent ones) can’t connect the dots to give us a complete analysis of it because they’re lacking the understanding of the science of psycho-socio pathology. Which is exactly what we bring every week on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head.
In spite of being attacked relentlessly by the powerful because the powerful know that if his work gets into the world, they lose their hold on power, Norberto Keppe has been resolute in his condemnation of the pathology of power. We’ll go deeply behind the curtains of power to expose all that on today’s show.
Join the conversation at joneshealing@gmail.com
Click here to listen to this episode.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Analytical Trilogy - Going Beyond Pseudo Solutions
The Tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan, the rising up in the Arab world, Haiti, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, another war … this is all showing much more than human tragedy and environmental devastation. What it’s showing us is that our way of behaving on the planet, even our lauded scientific philosophy itself, has led us not to the promised land of abundance and happiness, but to the brink of disaster. We are seeing the inevitable results of an inverted worldview.
This is much discussed and understood in the science of Analytical Trilogy – but discussed far less than it should be in the world at large.
Let’s explore beyond pseudo solutions on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head today.
Join the conversation at joneshealing@gmail.com
Click here to listen to this episode.
This is much discussed and understood in the science of Analytical Trilogy – but discussed far less than it should be in the world at large.
Let’s explore beyond pseudo solutions on Thinking with Somebody Else’s Head today.
Join the conversation at joneshealing@gmail.com
Click here to listen to this episode.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Man’s Inverted Desire To Be a “god”
Dec. 1, 2010
We go deep to the source of humanity’s problems on our show today, which we can do thanks to the science of Norberto Keppe, who is a master of human psycho and socio pathology. Join host Richard Lloyd Jones and special guest, Dr. Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco in an expansive and thrilling discussion that looks at how the desire to be like gods manifests in every area from politics and business to the spiritual world. We’ll also have a special report from the field with Gilbert Gambucci discussing the true basis of civilization.
Click here to listen to this episode.
We go deep to the source of humanity’s problems on our show today, which we can do thanks to the science of Norberto Keppe, who is a master of human psycho and socio pathology. Join host Richard Lloyd Jones and special guest, Dr. Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco in an expansive and thrilling discussion that looks at how the desire to be like gods manifests in every area from politics and business to the spiritual world. We’ll also have a special report from the field with Gilbert Gambucci discussing the true basis of civilization.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Power and the Loss of Ideals
How many times have we seen it? You're best friends with someone at work when suddenly they get promoted. After this move upstairs, they don't want to know you. They become aloof and unapproachable - almost like they've become somebody else. What's actually happening is that the new power has liberated the pathology that always existed. They've started the very self-destructive process of selling out.
Today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, Power and the Loss of Ideals.
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," was how Lord Acton supposedly put it back in the 19th century. But like Shakespeare's famous "To be or not to be," most have never heard what the insightful Lord Acton said next. It was, "Great men are almost always bad men."
Of course, this last would depend on how you define great men. If you limit that definition to men or women of material accomplishments only, perhaps. But it's difficult to ascribe the word "bad" to those of a more altruistic and benevolent nature. Gandhi, Mozart, Puccine, Da Vinci, Mother Theresa, Jesus - it would be difficult to accuse them of evil.
But there appears to be something that happens to those who are linked too much to power. And this is something Dr. Norberto Keppe has explored substantially in his writing - particularly in his book, Liberation of the People: the Pathology of Power, where Keppe turns his keen psychoanalytic mind on what goes on in power situations. He goes so far as to say, "The well balanced individual is not interested in having power. Only those who are extremely sick become attached to positions of power and command so as to counterbalance their psychological shortcomings."
In this sense, Keppe is going a huge step beyond the usual, "Oh, he's crazy," which is normally how we denominate those in power who do ridiculous things. Keppe is analyzing this psychologically, and is therefore providing a scientific view that goes well beyond the typical ideological divisions that govern whether we see a political or business move as positive or negative. And he points to this pathology of power as being the fundamental factor in our inverted and disturbed social life as well. In his book, Sociopathology, he puts it this way: "The core of sociopathology is the desire for power. Any individual who has unlimited power inevitably creates serious disorder because he is able to give free rein to all of his psychopathology."
This really moves the debate to an area more linked to reason and analysis, rather than just the usual emotional venting that occurs when talking about societal leadership.
This is leading edge psychological work that Keppe is developing here. We put up some interesting stuff about the pathology of power on our site at www.healingthroughconsciousness.com. Check it out and let me know what you think. rich@richjonesvoice.com
Dr. Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco from Keppe's International Society of Analytical Trilogy is here today to continue our discussion on power - particularly as linked to the loss of idealism and romanticism.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, Power and the Loss of Ideals.
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," was how Lord Acton supposedly put it back in the 19th century. But like Shakespeare's famous "To be or not to be," most have never heard what the insightful Lord Acton said next. It was, "Great men are almost always bad men."
Of course, this last would depend on how you define great men. If you limit that definition to men or women of material accomplishments only, perhaps. But it's difficult to ascribe the word "bad" to those of a more altruistic and benevolent nature. Gandhi, Mozart, Puccine, Da Vinci, Mother Theresa, Jesus - it would be difficult to accuse them of evil.
But there appears to be something that happens to those who are linked too much to power. And this is something Dr. Norberto Keppe has explored substantially in his writing - particularly in his book, Liberation of the People: the Pathology of Power, where Keppe turns his keen psychoanalytic mind on what goes on in power situations. He goes so far as to say, "The well balanced individual is not interested in having power. Only those who are extremely sick become attached to positions of power and command so as to counterbalance their psychological shortcomings."
In this sense, Keppe is going a huge step beyond the usual, "Oh, he's crazy," which is normally how we denominate those in power who do ridiculous things. Keppe is analyzing this psychologically, and is therefore providing a scientific view that goes well beyond the typical ideological divisions that govern whether we see a political or business move as positive or negative. And he points to this pathology of power as being the fundamental factor in our inverted and disturbed social life as well. In his book, Sociopathology, he puts it this way: "The core of sociopathology is the desire for power. Any individual who has unlimited power inevitably creates serious disorder because he is able to give free rein to all of his psychopathology."
This really moves the debate to an area more linked to reason and analysis, rather than just the usual emotional venting that occurs when talking about societal leadership.
This is leading edge psychological work that Keppe is developing here. We put up some interesting stuff about the pathology of power on our site at www.healingthroughconsciousness.com. Check it out and let me know what you think. rich@richjonesvoice.com
Dr. Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco from Keppe's International Society of Analytical Trilogy is here today to continue our discussion on power - particularly as linked to the loss of idealism and romanticism.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Popping the Positive Thinking Bubble
As a few at the top have been raking in the dough in America, the rest of us have been struggling. Offically "low-wage" familes are increasing in number significantly. While the 1% at the top end is springing for $175.00 gold dusted hamburgers at the Wall Street Burger Shop, the rest of us just feel squeezed.
Today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, Popping the Positive Thinking Bubble.
Yes, we're coming at this positive thinking thing again because I feel strongly that there is something in our culture of positive thinking that has led us astray. And I think that's been borne out when we just look around us at the society we've created.
We have children who've been uber-stroked with compliments heading into the workforce and completely incapable of coping with criticism, up-in-the-cloud investment experts who demanded only positive financial analysis and perspectives and thereby stayed blind to the dangerously inflated investment instruments that were poised to collapse all around our ears, we have U.S. Fed and Treasury experts being blindsided by the greed and selfishness on Wall Street that they didn't want to see.
Well, Norberto Keppe's science of Analytical Trilogy allows us to understand how all this could happen by putting us in touch with the roots of our human psychopathology that leads to all this, and that our dogma of positive thinking blocks us from seeing. So I'd like to explore this a little more today with my colleague, Susan Berkley.
But before we do that, a reminder about our World Psycho-Social Forum coming up in Brazil May 13-15, 2010. Love to have you join us for that. It would be good to let you know more about this intriguing forum, so you can write me for any more information you'd like ... rich@richjonesvoice.com and I'll make sure you're completely up to speed.
And one more thing - I've been doing a lot of work with my good friend and Thinking with Somebody Else's Head supporter, Will LaJeunesse, on our Healing Through Consciousness site. This is the call-in psychological program and podcast I do with psychoanalyst, Dr. Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco. We've got a lot of interesting resource material on that site about Analytical Trilogy, so feel free to check it out. www.healingthroughconsciousness.com. Let me know what you think.
Now, let's pop the positive thinking bubble.
Click here to listen to this episode.
Today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, Popping the Positive Thinking Bubble.
Yes, we're coming at this positive thinking thing again because I feel strongly that there is something in our culture of positive thinking that has led us astray. And I think that's been borne out when we just look around us at the society we've created.
We have children who've been uber-stroked with compliments heading into the workforce and completely incapable of coping with criticism, up-in-the-cloud investment experts who demanded only positive financial analysis and perspectives and thereby stayed blind to the dangerously inflated investment instruments that were poised to collapse all around our ears, we have U.S. Fed and Treasury experts being blindsided by the greed and selfishness on Wall Street that they didn't want to see.
Well, Norberto Keppe's science of Analytical Trilogy allows us to understand how all this could happen by putting us in touch with the roots of our human psychopathology that leads to all this, and that our dogma of positive thinking blocks us from seeing. So I'd like to explore this a little more today with my colleague, Susan Berkley.
But before we do that, a reminder about our World Psycho-Social Forum coming up in Brazil May 13-15, 2010. Love to have you join us for that. It would be good to let you know more about this intriguing forum, so you can write me for any more information you'd like ... rich@richjonesvoice.com and I'll make sure you're completely up to speed.
And one more thing - I've been doing a lot of work with my good friend and Thinking with Somebody Else's Head supporter, Will LaJeunesse, on our Healing Through Consciousness site. This is the call-in psychological program and podcast I do with psychoanalyst, Dr. Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco. We've got a lot of interesting resource material on that site about Analytical Trilogy, so feel free to check it out. www.healingthroughconsciousness.com. Let me know what you think.
Now, let's pop the positive thinking bubble.
Click here to listen to this episode.
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